5 Jobs for English Degrees You Never Knew Existed

May1st,2013

It was May. University was out forever and I was looking for an apartment. A mole-like woman in her fifties showed me the room. “And what was your major,” she asked. “I have an English degree,” I said.

“Oh!, so I guess that means you will HAVE to teach!” She said.

She was so happy when she said it. She was so happy to determine my fate. You studied English. Now, you HAVE to teach at high school.

Wizard school is over. Time to find a job in the real world, Harry.

As she told me later, she also took an English degree and taught at high school. Teaching at high school is an honourable profession. But just because you take an English degree doesn’t mean your only option is teaching.

I managed to escape that woman’s narrow thinking. You can too.

Here are 5 lucrative and growing jobs for people with English degrees that you probably haven’t heard of before.

These jobs are also excellent for MAs, PhDs, history majors, and other humanities degrees.

These jobs welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds. Best of all, they are new, uncharted, and so offer more opportunity to late bloomers or PhDs looking to break from the academic walls. In fact, some prefer humanities majors to MBAs.

Commerce Journalist

While journalists believe their industry is founded on the pursuit of OBJECTIVE TRUTH, the reality is that it is supported by advertising revenues.

Digital media is changing advertising. Banner ads and full-page ads are being replaced by native advertising, affiliate programs, and new forms of getting products in front of a magazine’s audience.

Enter the Commerce Journalist.

This is a sell-out approved job. Fast growing, lucrative, and lets you write for a living.

A commerce journalist is a new breed of part journalist and advertising writer.

Media companies are really looking for “commerce journalists” right now. Note this job requires you to be a bit of an intellectual whore. You’ve been warned.

The best part is that this job didn’t exist five years ago. That means, you don’t need tons of experience to break into it. Just skills, intellect, and motivation.

What you’d actually do:

From an actual job posting:

Your beat is helping readers buy things. You’ll be delivering content about products that Kotaku readers know, love, or should own. You’ll have both a daily writing assignment and the freedom to pursue your own content ideas. If you’re interested in things like deal forums, coupon codes, giving your friends product advice, and Amazon.com, you’ll use all of those as inspiration to create your own new commerce content product.

Traditional brands like the New York Times after they pull their heads from their pompous asses.

Degree required?

Writing skills to pay the bills prefered, but English BA, History, and basically any communication-related degree will do.

Education Coordinator at a Digital University

Digital media has opened the playing field for educators. As my student loan statements attest to, education is an extremely profitable industry.

These days if you want to be an educator, you don’t have to stick with a traditional high school or college. There are lots of small educational schools, which typically do a lot of business online.

If you are a PhD looking for a career change outside of academia, consider applying to these companies. In the last year, I’ve run into online writing schools, a digital DJ school, marketing training schools, and the fast-growing digital Stanford of the future, Udacity.

The nice part is that this is a new frontier. So they accept non-traditional applicants and probably pay better than being an adjunct.

There are three things these universities need: 1) content producers to create the programs, write blog posts, and promote 2) teachers to actually teach the classes 3) education coordinators and people to run the virtual office hours, help out, and do administrative tasks.

I cover the teaching aspect in a latter section. But for now, I want people with MAs and PhDs who have lots of teaching and university admin experience to be aware that you can also work as a coordinator.

What you’d actually do:

This is from an actual job posting. The job was for an education coordinator for an online screenwriting school (Writeyourscreenplay.com).

This is a high growth position, ideal for a high energy, self-directed multi-tasker. If you are tired of corporate bureaucracy, and are looking for an environment where your hard work and out of the box thinking will be appreciated and rewarded, this is the job for you.

Essential Responsibilities:

Administration & Management of all aspects of boutique screenwriting school. Be prepared and excited about wearing many hats, including but not limited to the following:

Manage our staff of interns and teachers, keeping everyone on task and functioning.

Online colleges like University of Phoenix (hey, it’s called Selloutyoursoul).

Degree required?

For small businesses like Writeyourscreenplay, a relevant degree and administrative experience.

Relevant teaching experience or admin experience in university would be a plus.

Social Media Community Manager

This is a new communication role at many companies. Social media community managers are hired to run various social media properties for brands and companies.

This job is part marketing, part editorial and communications, and part branding. It is great for out-going people with strong communication skills (for example, English degree and humanities majors).

Here is an actual employer from a major company explaining what they look for in new hires:

If you’re hiring for a social media manager, what are qualities that you’d look for?

Editorial background, above all else. I’d rather hire a someone with a journalism degree for this than an MBA in marketing. Find someone who can write, with a ‘punchy’ attitude, and has their finger on the pulse of current trends, news, etc., and you have a winner. Social media best practices and the ins and outs of your company’s products are easier to teach than these other core skills.

What you’d actually do:

Analyze your social community’s needs.

Write blog posts.

Develop strategies to keep your community happy.

Answer questions from the audience.

Think of new ideas for starting conversations.

Analyze results, such as reach, frequency and other marketing metrics.

Monitor social conversations; be the voice of the brand.

Types of companies hiring:

Large brands like Coca-Cola; small brands like software companies.

Professional sports teams (like NY Giants) and sport brands.

Small companies that use digital and social media to get business.

Some government and non-profit organizations that have social presences.

Entertainment companies like HBO.

Degree required?

Yes and no. Most marketing jobs don’t really give a crap about your degree. Skills, not paper certificates matter. But a humanities or English degree can be an asset if you don’t have experience.

Digital Teacher

Here’s a prediction: five years from now scoffing at the thought of “online university” will be reserved for only the stupidest, oldest, and foggy puritans of the old guard. Digital education is here and I’m not talking about your professor’s lame online discussion group.

For the digital universities and online colleges, a PhD or MA. Credibility is important for these companies so hiring “real professors” makes them look good. Guess what, in the REAL world having a PhD makes you a professor. So, break from your adjunct chains!

For the professional education sites like Lynda, a graduate degree would be a plus, but topic ownership is key.

Speech Writer

So you studied rhetoric? OMG you studied classic literature? HA!

I guess you have to work at Starbucks!!!!!!!!

Or you could write your way into history in Starbucks while a hipster MBA student serves you a second low-fat Africano.

He took a degree in political science. But despite what the annoying class president might have told you, in the private world political science is just as useless and irrelevant as an English degree, never mind the desperate attempt to put “science” beside it (perhaps, English Science would help fix the humanities crisis?).

You would work for political parties. Perhaps freelance writing speeches for CEOs (or getting your start there).

The reason why Obama hired Faveau at such an early age was his skills, not his degree. He showed up prepared. If you’ve read my eBook, you know my thoughts on this.

How to get started?

If you are smart enough to be a speech writer, you’ll figure that out. My hint would be to 1) learn how to write a speech by studying some classic and contemporary examples 2) prepare a glistening sample of your rhetoric to show employers 3) get an internship or position on a political campaign.